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Large Scale Prints Blur the Lines Between Painting and Photography

Rey Parlá's 'Borderless' is a series of cosmic prints with a mysterious origin story.

Listen To Your Universe, Rey Parlá. Courtesy of the artist and happylucky no.1

Unique fragments of illusory worlds dazzle the eyes in Rey Parlá's mysterious Scratch | Graphs, currently on display at Brooklyn’s happylucky no.1. The cosmic works are part of the artist's solo show, Borderless, a new body of work consisting of unique c-prints inspired by experimental filmmaking and the histories of photography and painting.

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Each Scratch | Graph begins with Parlá painting onto a large format film negative. Selected for their incredibly high resolution, these negatives are processed and printed in a way that enables their unique abstract output. One of the most striking elements of this body of work is how incredibly different each piece is from the next. Borderless could easily pass as an abstract group show, yet each work is the result of one artist’s brain.

In conversation with The Creators Project, Rey Parlá, who is the brother of painter and installation artist José Parlá, maintains an air of secrecy regarding his process: “The paintings are processed in various ways; my methods are borderless,” the artist quickly states, enigmatically referring to the title of the exhibition. Although it is difficult to deduce the entirety of his methods simply by looking at the works, errant geometric marks and lines often appear throughout the c-prints, suggesting etching or mark-making onto the negatives. The rest is shrouded in a veil of artistry and mystery.

Although he is understandably covert about his process, the artist is eager to explain why he’s called the show Borderless: “The title for the show is a metaphor for the multiplicity factor inherent in photography, which was born out of experimentation and has continued to sporadically germinate in all forms, methods, processes, and directions,” Parlá explains. “The title is a double entendre on the medium and the times we live in, beyond many other ideas.”

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Visitors during the opening reception. Courtesy of Zach Hilty & BFA.com

Shaping Lines into Light, Rey Parlá. Courtesy of the artist and happylucky no.1

KAWS, José Parlá, Rey Parlá, and JR at the opening reception. Courtesy of Zach Hilty & BFA.com

To try your hand at divining Rey Parlá’s process, visit Borderless at happylucky no.1 in Brooklyn through May 29. Check out more of the artist’s mixed media works here.

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